On October 25th, local time in the United States, Alibaba Group Holding Limited (Alibaba) announced that it had agreed to pay $433.5 million (approximately 30.89 billion RMB) to settle a class-action lawsuit initiated by American investors.
In 2020, American stock investors filed a class-action lawsuit against Alibaba, accusing the company of engaging in monopolistic behaviors. However, Alibaba denied violating antitrust or unfair competition laws, stating that the settlement was merely to avoid the costs and disruptions of further litigation.
The settlement agreement covers investors who held Alibaba shares on the U.S. stock market from November 13, 2019, to December 23, 2020. According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers in court documents, the proposed agreement is described as an “extraordinary result,” exceeding the average compensation amount in similar securities class-action lawsuits where investors suffered losses exceeding $10 billion.
Lawyers believe that if the litigation were to continue, Alibaba investors could potentially receive compensation of up to $11.63 billion (approximately 828.81 billion RMB).
As of the closing on the 25th, Alibaba’s stock was priced at $97.42 per share, with a market value of $233.319 billion (approximately 1.66 trillion RMB).
This news has sparked attention and discussions among Chinese internet users and investors.
One netizen, under the username “湖北利川蘇馬盪丫丫小築民宿,” expressed, “We often see the U.S. suing many companies and paying a lot of money, but we seem to have never had such cases? What’s going on? Is the legal system different?”
A netizen from Zhejiang responded, “We also have antitrust laws, but the fines go to the national treasury. What does it have to do with ordinary people?”
Another netizen named “誠信興國倍興家” commented, “The stock market in other countries keeps rising because they have a fair, just, and healthy system!”
User “灰太狼” believed, “Domestic stock investors should unite and sue listed companies for illegal profit operations and demand compensation.”
“如夢如萍” lamented, “Being an American stock investor must bring a high level of happiness.”
“涼白開” questioned, “How was the settlement amount calculated? It seems a bit excessive, but also reasonable.”